People do not like to grade papers but I always find it interesting except when I did not create the assignment, do not agree with it, did not create the course goals, do not agree with these, do not find them feasible, do not know what they are, or am unsure whether there is any reason why the course is given as it is other than that it was in 1930.

The above describes my situation about 50% of the time. Not having the information I need to make useful decisions in these situations, or the authority, latitude and time to design creative solutions to problems, is the most frustrating aspect of being a professor.

Having to limit oneself so as to fit into local systems antithetical to national and international norms and often to actual teaching (let alone research) is the most difficult aspect of the job.

4 responses to “Reading for Work: Grades”

Well, for this multi semester, multi section course it was decided at one point that to get some uniformity we would teach to a commercial test bank; I, as leader of the group (but not architect of the plan) had to model compliance for others.

And now this post is suggested reading from IHE. And I am grading — the test I wrote on my own, rebelling against that pesky test bank. It is *much* less heart rending; the test was technically more demanding but actually easier to pass and learn from. I win.

Secretos y Saberes

1. While writing here is an excellent exercise for my English style and for writing as such, it is bad for my style in Spanish. Therefore some posts may be in languages other than English.

2. Corybantic, rather anarchical and possibly Liangian, this blog is opposed to everything I find mean. It criticizes things you may hold dear. It resists authoritarianism and received ideas. It vaporizes Fascists.

3. This blog is a codex you have found. It speaks to one and all. But it also holds secrets and hides its face, for I who now perform the ancient text must adapt its words for modernity. I am a sculpted skull on a stela at Copán.